The project’s many delays – some due to unexpected maintenance, some to funding availability – became a source of both frustration and humor for trail users and observers, who joked about the flyover taking longer than engineering marvels like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sears Tower.
Navy Pier Flyover
The long-awaited, sometimes-maligned structure carrying the lakefront trail over Grand Avenue, Illinois Street and the Chicago River has missed its latest target to wrap up in April. But the Chicago Department of Transportation says it’s “very close” to completion.
After years of work, pedestrians and cyclists can now stay on the lakefront trail as it crosses the Chicago River – though the full Navy Pier flyover isn’t finished just yet.
The eagerly awaited and often delayed Navy Pier flyover has been delayed yet again, this time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chicago’s lakefront trail has been battered by winter storms this year and closed down by the mayor. But there is some good news on horizon: the long-awaited Navy Pier flyover appears to be close to completion.
Chicago is facing a lot of unfunded infrastructure needs in the coming years, according to officials. And it’s not just roads, bridges and streetlights that need work. The city’s lakefront is grappling with another year of high lake levels.
Chicago’s most famous empty hole is set to get new life, in the latest massive development that will alter Chicago’s skyline in the midst of a global pandemic.
Marilynn Gardner took the reins of Navy Pier in 2011 and has overseen its $300 million transformation as the pier’s president and CEO. She joins us in discussion.
Chicagoans have watched the Navy Pier Flyover begin to take shape over the last three years. But the city recently pushed back the completion date to 2019. Frustrated cyclists and pedestrians are beginning to ask why.